HankShaw

Homemade hot sauce from wild chiles, the chiltepins of the Sonoran desert - the only chile native to the United States. This is a fiery sauce that hits you hard up front, then fades to a lingering savory flavor.

This is what you do when life gives you unripe grapes. Made with wild or domestic grapes, verjus (verjuice) is just the strained juice of unripe grapes. You use it like a mild vinegar. Best part? Verjus plays well with wine, where vinegar does not.

Yep. Yucca flowers are edible. They taste like a cross between a green bean and the innermost leaves of an artichoke. Yucca is in bloom all over the southern half of the country now, so give them a go -- I like them fried, tempura-style.

And you thought bacon was only a Western thing. Not so. The Chinese make all sorts of fantastic pork belly products, and this one, smoked with chile, cinnamon, star anise and Sichuan peppercorn, is one of the best.

Ramps are just starting to show up on the forest floors of Eastern woodlands. They are a harbinger of spring, and are just one of many wild onions that live across the United States. Take advantage of them while you can!

When life gives you more fresh herring than you can eat, you pickle them! This style of pickle is a Swedish one called glassblower's herring (no idea why). No fresh herring? You can make this with salted herring, too.